FLUX. Director's Statement
Welcome to “FLUX”, the ninth short film in the HUMAN CONCEPTS series, and perhaps the most abstract and open-ended of them all. It is a work created entirely from an expressionistic approach. More a visual poem than a structured narrative. I chose not to define the story too clearly, allowing each image to hold multiple meanings, contradictions, and truths at once. This is a film meant to be felt before it is understood, inviting the viewer to sit with discomfort, beauty, and symbolism in flux.
At the center of the film is a strange and striking journey: a group of gorillas emerging from a red river. Thick, flowing like blood, and charging across landscapes until they reach a flooded Paris, submerged under a giant red tsunami. Along the way, shimmering blue diamonds float and crash into the blood-red water, adding another layer of symbolic contrast. These surreal elements, while fantastical, are rooted in real histories. The red ocean is the blood of colonialism, of conquest, slavery, and exploitation. The gorillas represent us, humans, animals born from the violence of our ancestors.
Paris appears as both a place and a symbol. It represents soft power, colonial legacy, and the cultural wealth preserved and displayed in its streets and museums. The red tsunami that eventually engulfs the city is not just destruction. It is a metaphor for reckoning. A return. A wave of history crashing back. The diamonds floating above are not just visual flourishes. They are direct references to the diamond trade, to the resources extracted from the Global South for the luxury of the Global North.
“FLUX” is a film about colonialism and its living aftermath. About how we are still shaped by systems built long ago. It is not a literal narrative, but a visceral one. Every image, whether it appears for a few seconds or lingers, is designed to be provocative, striking, and full of emotional weight. The red water, the apes, the diamonds: they are all loaded with references and meanings that might shift with every viewing.
This isn’t a film that demands to be decoded. It’s a visual confrontation, a meditation on inheritance, violence, and the quiet ways history bleeds into our present. I didn’t want to make a film that points fingers, but rather one that holds a mirror. One that lets the past flow into the now, like blood into water.
As always, thank you for taking the time to watch and to read this! We are getting close to the end of this journey, so thanks for bearing with me.
From Costa Rica with love,
Andrés